Good morning, and welcome to the Kalamazoo Stream, your look at what's coming up in Southwest Michigan today and what's hot on MLive Kalamazoo.

And it's a big one, for us: first day for the Stream and even bigger, the first day for MLive Media Group, the MLive.com redesign and the Kalamazoo Gazette staff moving into our new office on the Kalamazoo Mall.

- LUNCH: HOEKSTRA IN TOWN: Pete Hoekstra, former Republican congressman and U.S. Senate candidate, will be in town this afternoon to give a talk titled "The Impact of Gridlock in Washington on Business Growth". Tickets are $25 for Chamber members and $45 for non-members.

- CONVERSATION WITH UPTON: On Monday, I sat down with Congressman Fred Upton. The story will be published later this morning, but h

- ANOTHER SPILL IN KZOO RIVER:The Battle Creek Enquirer reports that what appears to be a kerosene or fuel oil spill was reported Wednesday in Kalamazoo. The contamination was traced to a drain that dumps into a small creek that flows into the Kalamazoo River near Territorial Road and Riverside Drive.

- HOTEL 'EAST HALL'?: Would you like to spend a night in Western Michigan University's beloved East Hall? Ursula Zerilli reports from a meeting updating the public on the proposed $60 million project. Developers said they are waiting to apply for some kind of tax credits. (More on the tax credits to come later this morning).

- But for most people, the important thing will be if the building remains. Randy Doran, senior vice president of the firm working on the plans, said: "ÂÂWhat was important to this team and the university was that the original design and the fact this is the birthplace of Western was a theme throughout our proposal. Coming through with a wrecking ball was not an option."

- LET'S GET TOGETHER: The city of Portage is launching a new marketing effort — one it says is the first in the state — between the city, library and school system, Tom Haroldson reports. Portage Mayor Pete Strazdas said "

We have three unique assets and we thought it was important for each of us to share the good news. We intend to package all three together to share with the community, the region and the state. We think it's like packaging three sticks of dynamite together."

- IT'S GROUNDHOGS DAY, and we'll finally know what the rest of winter has in store.

Punxsutawney Phil is great, but if there is a Kalamazoo equivalent, what would it be? I would like to see Buster Bronco try to look for his shadow...